


Home Is Not A Place

by wintergrey



Series: Marvel Snax [6]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 16:07:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1095947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wintergrey/pseuds/wintergrey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony can't wait to get home—it doesn't matter where that is.</p><p>(Inspired by <a href="http://provocatrixxx.tumblr.com/post/70837542822/amaisatya-beyondthevalleyofthefemdoms-i-saw">this</a>.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home Is Not A Place

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Provocatrixxx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Provocatrixxx/gifts).



“Can’t wait to get home.” Tony’s head lolled against the netting strung up the sides of the cargo hold. So much for the helicarrier—international politics had it stranded back in Canada. He had no idea who’d fucked up, nor did he care—notwithstanding the fact that it had probably been him. Never piss off the Canadians—they were quiet until you did something like drop pieces of an alien starcraft on one of their mooses. Meeses? It had to be mooses.

Fury had, again, nixed the use of a Stark jet. They were on their way across Siberia in a cargo plane that had probably been in service back when Steve was in bootcamp. Tony was going to have to buy the Army some more planes just to get in a nap.

“We’re going to Moscow.” Bruce cracked an eyelid long enough to correct him.

“Close enough.”

***

“JARVIS, make sure I don’t say anything impolitic.” Tony spat sea water out of the cracked faceplate of his helmet as he was drawn up the sloped stern of a Japanese whaling vessel.

“I’m afraid translation protocols don’t include a censor, sir,” JARVIS said primly. “Miss Potts suggested one, you were... unenthusiastic.”

“Well, I was stupid,” he snapped. The winch stopped grinding and Tony rolled over onto his hands and knees. “At least help me up.” His head was spinning. “How far did I fall anyway?”

“The total distance of the arc you travelled is precisely one thousand, eighty two kilometers, four metres, sir. If you’d like a Point A to Point—“

“No, I’m good.” Tony rose to standing with the help of the last power in the suit, and found himself facing a cluster of stunned Japanese fishermen.

“Ey!” One of them said, excitedly, pointing at him. “Iron Man!”

“Yeah, it’s me.” Tony waved back wearily. “I can’t wait to get home.”

“You’ll need to report to Washington, sir,” JARVIS reminded him. "This problem may require some time to solve."

“Enh. Close enough.”

***

“This sucks.” Tony tore an arm off a massive robot—octopus... or something... only to have two more tentacles wrap around him. It had way more than eight of those things. “Who are these guys anyway?”

“HYDRA.” Steve’s shield cut through the tentacles and Tony fired up the jets before he fell too far. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of something green—the Hulk, nearly going down under one of these bastards, with Thor beating on the thing’s head. “The Red Skull always did have aspirations to space travel.”

Tony deflected a series of swipes with his beams, backing up to assess the situation. It sucked. Hawkeye and Black Widow were making their way into the station overhead, though, their tiny forms ignored in the chaos of the team’s diversion. One of the HYDRA robots swatted Steve like he was a baseball. America’s favourite pasttime.

“Can’t wait to get home.” The Earth was a distant green fleck in the blackness.

“That’s weeks away,” Steve said with a grunt as Tony caught him around the waist and launched him back at the machines. Tony jetted after him, blasting tentacles so that Steve could get at the core to shut the thing down.

“Surely Iron Man means the Stark Station.” Thor’s voice sounded really weird inside a spacesuit.

“Yeah. Close enough.”

***

“It’s good to be home.” Truth was, if you didn’t look out the window at the “vast and starry void” as Thor called it, you could mistake the Stark Station for Stark Tower.

“I can’t believe you broke your arm fighting, what was it?” Pepper had refused to do the Princess Leia hair but she was wearing a long white vest over a skin-tight white jumpsuit. Hot. Tony ignored the disapproval on her face in favour of checking out the rest of her.

“Robot Space Octopuses. Octopi.” Tony flexed his fingers—they were swelling a little. “And it’s not really broken. Just. Kind of dislocated and things. Pour me a drink?”

“It’s octopuses. Greek, not Latin. You just said your arm wasn’t broken, Tony. You can do it yourself. Do you know how hard it is to run a business back on Earth from space?” Pepper shook her head and made a disgusted face as she tossed a StarkTab on the coffee table. “I have figures for you to check out there.”

“I’m already checking out a figure.” Tony waggled his eyebrows at her. He still had it.

“Tony.” Pepper put her hands on her hips. “I’m serious. Do you know how annoying Earth time zones are when you’re on a thirty-six hour day? I can’t tell if I’m behind or ahead.”

“I was just fighting space robots, Pepper.” Tony sagged into a white sling chair with an inadvertent grunt of pain. He decided to follow it up with a sad-puppy face. “In space. I got hurt. See? It’s been a long month. I told you my sad moose story, didn’t I?”

“Yes. And I felt very sorry. For the moose.” Pepper went around behind the pearly lucite bar to pour him a drink, though. “I made a donation to the Canadian Wildlife Federation in your name. And sent them an apology card.”

She brought him the glass—the warm, peaty, golden scotch was a stark contrast to the cool white and silver room. Pepper had the same lively glow about her, to Tony’s senses. Her hair looked the way the radiant heat of a fire felt, pushing back the cold of a winter night. Tony took a drink and closed his eyes as her fingers feathered through his hair.

“It has been a long month, though,” she said quietly. Her gentle hands were a better anodyne than any painkiller. Tony imagined trails of golden light chasing her touch across his skin.

“Like I said.” He tilted his head to rest his cheek in the safe curve of her palm. “It’s good to be home.”

“On the station?” When he opened his eyes, she was looking down at him like some kind of goddess of mercy. “I like the way you made it feel familiar, so much like the Tower. I haven’t gotten lost once.”

“Well, that.” Tony kissed the fingers of her other hand when they trailed across his mouth. “But I meant you.”

“Me?” Pepper’s smile was sweet and curious at once.

“You.” Tony leaned up, yearning, and she kissed his forehead, then allowed him to kiss her perfect mouth. “I meant you when I said home.”


End file.
